Measuring the potency of risk factors for clinical or policy significance

For those in the prevention field who need to use risk factors to identify those at risk, mere statistical significance is not sufficient to establish clinical or policy significance. For that purpose, some measure of "potenc y" of risk factors is needed, that is, an effect size interpretable and mea ningful in a clinical or policy context. The numerous possible candidate me asures available often lead to contradictory conclusions. Which of the cand idate measures is right or wrong for clinical and policy decision making de pends on the fit between the trade-offs between false-positive and false-ne gative decisions implicit in the definition of the measure land often unkno wn to the user) and those related to a specific context of application.